Where Romney Is Weak

He doesn't look too weak to me in the current polls. But Larison expects Romney to do poorly in Monday's foreign policy debate, which might tilt this election's momentum in favor of the president:

There are many things that aren’t Romney’s “natural” subjects, but he doesn’t struggle with any other kind of policy as much as he struggles with this one. As a former governor, it is understandable that he prefers talking about domestic policy issues, but favoring this preference has caused him to neglect foreign policy to a remarkable degree for someone who has been running for president since 2006. Until now, most voters likely haven’t noticed the result of this neglect, but they will see it in Monday’s debate.

[W]hat is Mitt Romney's primary criticism of Barack Obama on foreign policy? It's that Obama allegedly "apologizes for America" (he hasn't actually ever apologized for America, but you'll forgive me if I don't have the energy to debunk that one for the millionth time). In short, it's that Mitt Romney thinks Obama says things that aren't right. What's the problem with Obama's policy toward Israel? There's "daylight" between us and Israel! What kind of daylight? Why, rhetorical daylight. The worst kind.

Monday's debate is going to be an absolute festival of this kind of ridiculousness. Maybe if we're lucky Obama will come up with some clever way to move the discussion toward what we should do, instead of just what we should say.